News

We all know that most regeneration plans take a long time to deliver and the best laid schemes are prone to delay and slippage but not-so the construction, delivery and implementation of Dover’s Javelin trains to London.

After all the lobbying, and cajoling that went into connecting the Priory station into the high speed rail network I was pleased to welcome the former Minister of Transport, Dr Steve Ladyman to Dover in 2007 – on the day he made the historic announcement that the deal was done and Dover was to have its fast trains after all.

Earlier this year, on Monday 7th September I had the privilege of sitting in the cab and then travelling to London on the very first of the preview service trains out of Dover. And last Monday I joined up with Secretary of State, Lord Adonis, the current Transport Minister, Paul Clark and Dame Kelly Holms to officially open the full high speed domestic service from Dover and other East Kent Stations into London.

To emphasise the enormous importance to Kent of the new Javelin services the Prime Minister was on the platform at St Pancras Station to greet us, view the new train and hail the commencement of Britain’s first domestic high speed rail service.

Gordon Brown said that it was a momentous day in the long and glorious history of British railways and he announced that the Government will be investing a massive £20 billion into our rail infrastructure over the next few years.

The Javelin trains cost £6 million each and over 500 of them have been purchased to run on the High Speed One (HS1) and domestic rail tracks across the county. Nineteen of these train sets will service the line to Dover and taken as a whole the new network represents a massive investment into our patch.

There’s been more good news for our constituency this week. In order to avoid all those delays and slippages suffered by developers all round the country, the Government is pumping cash into specific projects to help kick start them and I’ve been urging Ministers to look favourably on some of my local projects.

As well as accelerating much needed development, the KICKSTART program stimulates the construction trade, boosts building supply services keeps people in employment – which is especially important during the current economic downturn.

Last month the Government made £2 million available through their KICKSTART program to accelerate the regeneration project at the old gas works site in North Deal and this week the Housing Minister, John Healey has revealed that a further 265 stalled housing developments have been short-listed for a share of a further £550 million.

This cash will help get building work on some 22,400 homes back on track again, supporting over 10,000 jobs and up to 1,000 apprentices across the country. The average award is £2 million and I’m delighted to announce that the Growth Point Regeneration project in Aylesham is on the Minister’s list and we are ear marked to receive £6.3 million – amongst the highest of all the KICKSTART awards..